Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Is Writing a Joy, or Is It Work? Yes.

Over the months, I’ve signed up for a few “writer’s pages”
at Facebook, primarily because I enjoy the inspirational quotes, occasional writing
prompts, and the spirit of camaraderie fostered by hearing other writers talk
about writing. Today one of those pages posted this quote by Agatha Christie,
which has garnered a number of comments, some in agreement and some not:

“There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a
professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when
you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t particularly
writing well.”

This is provocative. One responder claimed this was the
reason she’d never be a professional writer. Another one said she wants to be a
professional but will only ever write what she wants and as long as she loves
it. (To which I say, “heh.”)

The problem (if it is a problem) is that, in good Anglican
fashion, I both agree and disagree with Christie’s words, which means I both
agree and disagree with the responders.

There is a very real sense in which being a professional –
at anything, writing included – means showing up day and after day and doing
the job. That includes days you don’t feel like doing it. And if you’re going
to do something as mundane as, say, earn an income from writing, then you will
likely be tackling some writing assignments that you would never touch unless someone said to you “we need this by Friday…can you do
it?”

It’s what Jane Yolen helpful refers to as the B.I.C.
approach to writing: “butt in chair.” There are days, quite frankly, when I
would like to be elsewhere, doing something else, but I stick to the chair as
though duct taped there because the work needs to be done.

Of course – and here’s the flip-side, folks – why would I be
doing that if I didn’t want to write in the first place? There are a lot of
other things I could be doing, but I choose to do *this,* even on the days when
it’s hard or boring or lonely or not going well, because quite frankly I can’t
imagine doing anything else. Even when I am not in the chair, I am thinking
like a writer, processing like a writer, responding to life like a writer,
working on projects in my head (whether that’s mentally mapping out a lead for
a book review in the shower, planning a blog post while I cook, or having an
inner conversation with one of my fictional characters while I fold laundry).

Not coincidentally, the Jane Yolen “B.I.C.” approach is one
that she expounds in her lovely book titled Take Joy: A Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craft. Clearly Yolen, a highly prolific writer, sees no
contradiction between saying that she loves writing and writes for the joy of
it and that she needs a
pragmatic/dutiful/persevering approach to writing sometimes. In fact, one might
say that it’s the joy of the thing – the sheer enjoyment of finding the right
word, of putting words together into phrases and sentences and paragraphs and
stories – that keeps you in the chair (and keeps you from pulling out your
hair) on certain days.

Even on the writing projects you really love, that you do not because they’re
assigned or because anyone has promised you any recompense, you’re going to
have times when you despair that the writing will ever be what you want it to
be. Do you quit then? Well, sometimes. But if you’re a professional, you don’t
quit for long stretches. You quit to go walk the dog or check the casserole in
the oven or answer an email or read a book to your child or watch an episode of
Sherlock or eat some ice cream. But you don’t quit forever. You go back to the
page that day or that night or the next day, because you’re a writer…and writing is what you love to do.

Loving to write, however, doesn’t always mean that it’s
going to be easy. I think this is where our culture tends to trip up with the
whole idea of love and work or duty – seeing them as diametrically opposed when
they’re really not. We say “I’m only going to do something if I really love
doing it!” when what we really mean is “I’m only going to do it as long as it’s
fun and feels easy and doesn’t take too much time or inconvenience my
schedule.” It’s only when you really love to do something that you make room
for it in your life even when it’s not easy, when you commit to doing it even
when it’s difficult or when you aren’t doing it as well as you’d like to but
still feel called to keep at it.

So the answer to “is writing hard work?” is a resounding
yes, but that yes will feel much easier and more life-giving if your answer to
“is writing a joy?” is a yes that reverberates even more loudly.

2 comments:

A wonderful and encouraging blog post in a week when writing is feeling more like a burden. I'm grateful that I finally have a regular direct order client, but I'm finding it a tad hard to keep up with, and staying motivated has been a challenge the last couple days when there's so much I want to do on the house too. But boy, is it nice to be at the point now where I really can say that writing is what I do for a living. Definitely where I want to be!

I'm glad the post encouraged you, Erin! I know this must feel like a crazy-busy time as you settle into your new place and try to stay on top of writing assignments too. A challenging time to make that connection with a direct order client :) but how awesome that that's happened for you. Having regular writing work is a blessed thing. I'm not there yet...even combining my writing and teaching work, I can't say I'm making a living...but I am at least making more regularly and contributing economically to our household, and that's a good thing.

About Me

C.S. Lewis once wrote: "I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books." Although my list of influences would be slightly different, it would most likely end on the same note. I have been a bookworm all my life.